When Jurassic Park debuted about twenty-five years ago, Jeff Goldbum’s character, Ian Malcolm, a chaos theory aficionado, uttered the ominous statement, “Life will find a way.” The movie then proves his statement correct revealing that the female dinosaur species found a way to create new life. This latest Jurassic movie, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, takes this theme a step further to communicate that not only is life resilient, it has value.
Spoiler alert.
Saving Lives
In a critical moment, one of the main characters, Claire, has to decide whether to release the eleven species of dinosaurs out into suburban America or allow them to die and become extinct once again. She decides not to let them go, possibly thinking of the human lives that would be lost. Claire is distraught about this decision—the entire film centered on her desire to save these animals from destruction on the island. However, when confronted with choosing life for the dinosaurs or life for the humans, she chooses to protect people.
As Claire and Owen look out the window, though, they suddenly see the dinosaurs running out of the building. They turn to see that the third character in the room, Mr. Lockwood’s granddaughter Maisie, has released them. As they stare at her, she states defiantly, “They are alive. Like me.” She too has been a result of genetic manipulation, as her “grandfather” cloned his daughter who had died in a car accident, of which Maisie is the result.
The final scene of the movie reverts back to Ian Malcolm, now sitting before a group of politicians and onlookers, explaining that since dinosaurs are now living amongst them, they are living in a new era, a new world—a Jurassic world.
As the film cuts to scenes of the dinosaurs in the wild, we know that this new world is not going to be a safe world for humans. According to Jurassic philosophy, though, the only lives that seem valuable are the lives of the animals. While the scene of the brachiosaurus left behind to die in the eruption is upsetting and drawn out, human life is extinguished with flare and a sense of vengeful justice. This is, unfortunately, not a surprising trend.
Read the rest here at Fathom Mag.
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